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August 26, 2010

Wedding quilt process post #3

Last time I brought it up, I was leaning towards this design for the wedding quilt.

And I did decide to go with it. The big question in my mind was “how do I make giant curves?” I came up with an answer pretty quickly. The comforter on our bed is the size I want the quilt to be, so it was the perfect place to start. I used making tape to make a rough sketch on the comforter of the two circles.

Then I let it sit for a month. I needed time with no little person who would be tempted to “help” by peeling off the tape or otherwise being underfoot. Last weekend I had my chance. In a flash the comforter was on the living room floor.

I tied one end of a string around a chair leg

And the other end around a pen

I taped a piece of freezer paper (the only large paper I had) to the comforter.

And used the string/pen as a large compass to draft an arc. It took some maneuvering to get the chair leg in the right place (the center of the circle) and when the pen (finally!) seemed to align with the whole taped arc, I made my marks. Sometimes many marks were made, and then I had to note which ones were the correct ones.

I then changed the length of the string while keeping the chair leg where it was, and drew a second arc. I then had an arc shape the width that I wanted the ring to be. I repeated the process with the second circle and ended up with two slightly different arc shapes.

If I have done my job correctly (and this is by no means certain) I have created pattern pieces that can be reproduced and pieced together to create the two different rings. I’ll need 4-5 copies of each arc to complete the circles on the quilt. I’ll cut those out of a lightweight fabric and use that as a foundation to string piece upon. Then I plan to appliqué the rings to a plain backing. I haven’t decided how to quilt it yet – a few good ideas but no clear victor. I hope this turns out well. I think I am past the hard part and that once I get moving on piecing the circles it will come together quickly.